This page is intended to set out some of the more commonly distressing or triggering events in my novels, for readers who prefer to know about these before beginning a book. It can’t, of course, be comprehensive and will necessarily contain spoilers.
I write either in first person or in tight third, and from the point of view of characters who undergo significant growth during the course of the narrative. This means that the reader will be spending a considerable amount of time with a character whose opinions or self-image may be objectionable or upsetting, and who may not necessarily identify or explicitly reject those within the course of the action.
All books so far are set in twenty-first century Britain, but before the COVID-19 pandemic. They tend to end in a reasonably optimistic frame of mind, but the process of getting there isn’t necessarily pleasant.
Specific notes for each book follow.
Speak Its Name
Homophobia (internalised; institutional; religiously motivated; from a parent); physical abuse by a parent of their adult child; spiritual abuse; death of a major supporting character
A Spoke In The Wheel
Ableist assumptions and actions (including from the narrator in the early part of the book); the DWP; reference to past drug abuse in a sporting context; scarcity of medication; reference to past suicide attempt
The Real World
Homophobia (institutional; religiously motivated; from a parent); biphobia from within the LGBT+ community; clinical depression; hospitalisation of an adult’s parent
Kathleen Jowitt 